Let's Hear It for Our Mommas!

Thank you, everyone, for all the positive feedback on the blog!  The pressure’s on now, though….I have to keep this up! 

So this weekend Matthew and I went separate directions from Atlanta – him to Birmingham and me to Knoxville.  I decided last-minute to go see some of my bff’s in Knoxville because life is about to get crazy with board exams and residency, and I just needed a little TLC that only those girlfriends that know you best can give.  Overall, it was a great get-together.  As we were winding up a Mexican dinner last night, we were comparing our relationships with our moms.  Some of us had the blowout fights with our moms during those awkward teenage years, some of us took passive aggressive to the max, and some of us just thought it was too much of the same personality for one house.  As I was driving back to Atlanta today, I was thinking about my group of closest friends and about the women we have become.  While dads undoubtedly play an irreplaceable role in our lives and we have all met individuals that have changed our ways of thinking, MUCH credit goes to our moms.

Not to get too universal, but our moms, and their moms and their moms, have paved the way for my generation of women.  I am the person, the woman, I want to be at this point in my life, and I am proud to give credit to my mom. 

Back to my group of best friends….we have good jobs, a plethora of graduate degrees among the 11 of us, boyfriends, husbands, house payments, leadership roles in community organizations, impressive passports….by today’s standards, we are a successful (and fortunate and very grateful) bunch.  But even with these tangible success measures, it is our attitudes of which I am most proud.  We REALLY believe that we can do anything.  If we want to be president of a company, we can do it; president of the United States, we can do it.  We want to have four kids and be a CEO, of course we can, why not?  We speak our minds loud and clear, in conversation or against something we know is wrong.  We put effort and time (and Matthew would probably say too much money) into how we look, but don’t you dare make any assumptions about us based on that.  We work out (or try to, at least), but we know that the way we live and the way we treat others is what really matters.  We talk openly about sex and too-fun nights out and can tell a dirty joke with the best of them, but we don’t let those moments define us.  When life throws us a roadblock that knocks us down, we stand up, brush ourselves off and are more determined to get what we want.  We do what we can to help those less fortunate, but we don’t feel guilty about the occasional spa visit.  We strive to live life to its fullest and push ourselves to our personal limits.  We expect a lot of ourselves and a lot from others, and we don’t apologize for it.  Let me clarify….I understand that we are several decades past the women’s rights movements; the difference is that today’s girls don’t give a second thought to not being a man.  Even the implication that being a female is a drawback gets a furrowed-brow, skeptical look and a “What the hell?” 

Don’t get me wrong, us modern girls have our faults – i.e., we choose to watch repeats of Keeping Up with the Kardashians or Sex and the City (which we have, of course, seen at least four times) rather than any news broadcast; we diet like mad women until Friday late night when we scarf down 4 Krystals, 3 Pups and fries (with a Diet Coke, naturally); we use technology for almost everything from setting up dates to making hair appointments to keeping up with our checking accounts but would take an embarrassingly long time to remember how to use the Dewey decimal system.  But because of our moms, we do these things without shame.  What the hell?

And we can’t forget the moms of the men (or boys, depending on the day).  We owe it to you to setting the example for your sons.  You have raised them to find strong, independent, smart women attractive. 

So in honor of Mother’s Day 2011, raise your glasses to the women that have made us who we are.  To my own mom, Jimmie, you rock my world, and I’ll never be able to thank you enough.  To Sandy, thank you for raising the man of my dreams – I am a better person because you were an incredible mom.  To the moms of my best friends, thank you for raising smart, positive, FUN girls that have shown me the meaning of true friendship.  To the moms of little girls and little boys, let’s keep up the good work.  You comforted us when we down, bandaged skinned knees and encouraged us through trying times, but most importantly, you taught us that this life is ours for the taking; and watch out world, us girls are here!

Until next time, sending love,

The Spiveys